`Opposition has no captain'
BHAGALPUR (BIHAR), APRIL 25. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today said the Congress-led Opposition had ``taken field'' (general election) without a captain. ``When somebody asks me who is the captain of Indian cricket team, I say Sourav ...

No question of ties with SP, BSP: Naqvi
NEW DELHI, APRIL 25. With the first lot of 32 of a total of 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh going to the polls tomorrow, the Bharatiya Janata Party has emphasised that there is "no question of a [post-poll] alliance with the ...

`BJP wooing Muslims in sheer desperation'
NEW DELHI, APRIL 25."We wish him [the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee] well but the destiny of India cannot be entrusted to his leadership for another five years," the Congress spokesperson, Anand Sharma, said here today. He also joined ...

Samajwadi Party committed to anti-communal plank: Surjeet
NEW DELHI, APRIL 25.The Communist Party of India (Marxist) today rose to the defence of the Samajwadi Party, expressing confidence that its leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, would play a leading role in defeating the ...

V.P. Singh rejects BJP's stand on foreign origin issue
LUCKNOW, APRIL 25. The former Prime Minister, V P Singh, today rejected the BJP logic to debar Indian citizens of foreign origin from holding top constitutional positions. Mr. Singh told the press here that it was an ``insult'' to the citizenry ...

`Vajpayee made false promises'
NEW DELHI, APRIL 25. The Rajya Sabha member, Saifuddin Soz, has charged the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with making "false promises for electoral gains" with an eye on the Muslim vote when campaigning in the Kishanganj constituency in ...

Fear of neighbours allayed
KOCHI, APRIL 25. The Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Madhvendra Singh, has set at rest the fears of neighbouring countries relating to the steady build-up of the Navy. Addressing presspersons at the Southern Naval Command here today, Admiral ...

A matter of Thakur `honour'
An uninformed visitor to Pratapgarh cannot be faulted for assuming that Raghuraj Pratap Singh (Raja Bhaiyya)  the Independent member of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly imprisoned under POTA  is a candidate for tomorrow's parliamentary ...

Close fight in Dibrugarh
Traditionally a Congress stronghold, upper Assam's Dibrugarh constituency is witnessing a tough electoral battle with both the Asom Gana Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party making every effort to capture this citadel of the ruling ...

Nellie villagers vow to boycott polls
Md. Mafizuddin of Basundhari village in Nagaon district looks helplessly at his flood-damaged crop and gives vent to his ire. His dreams of a bumper harvest lie submerged under the surging waters of the Kopili and Killing rivers. "Every time ...

KEY CONSTITUENCYCatholic vote likely to decide Mormugao outcome
While it looks like a certain victory for the BJP's Shripad Y Naik in the Panaji (North Goa) Lok Sabha constituency in the April 26 elections, all eyes are focused on Mormugao (South Goa) constituency where the Catholic Christian voters have a ...

Cultural czars unite to fight communalism
Some of Karnataka's most creative minds have decided to step into the political arena and campaign against communal hatred in the State. And what better way to do this than to invoke Karnataka's long literary tradition of religious plurality, ...

Militants stepping up anti-poll drive
In the remote hill areas of Jammu and Kashmir, the people, including tribals, have begun earning the wrath of militants for taking part in the election process. After the election dates were announced, people were warned against participating in ...

Poll-Pourri
If the number of political parties has anything to do with the health of a democracy, then Indian democracy must be truly vibrant. Apart from the six recognised national parties and 45 state parties, it has 702 `registered unrecognised parties'. ...